“Mayor Angelo Vassallo killed by Carabiniere Cioffi”, the accusation of the repentant

The person who shot Angelo Vassallo, the “fisherman mayor” of Pollica, was apparently Lazzaro Cioffi, a former carabiniere already convicted of narcotics charges. This was told to the magistrates by justice collaborator Romolo Ridosso, among the four arrested for the murder, who reported a related report: he would have learned it from Giuseppe Cipriano, owner of a cinema in Scafati (Salerno) and also among the recipients of the measure.

Vassallo was killed on the evening of September 5, 2010 with nine gunshots. It was a few minutes after 9pm, the mayor had just left the Acciaroli square and was returning home. According to the investigators, the motive could be a drug ring that Vassallo believed he had discovered and which he had already spoken about with the prosecutor Alfonso Greco, his friend; the day after the murder he was supposed to meet a policeman to tell the dynamics and names. The arrests began on 7 November: in addition to Cioffi, Cipriano and Ridosso, the measure concerns Carabinieri Colonel Fabio Cagnazzo.

The repentant: “Vassal killed by Lazzaro Cioffi”

The content of the report of Ridosso’s investigative interrogation, which began on 11 November and ended the following day, was anticipated by Il Fatto Quotidiano. The statements made to the investigating judge in the Modena prison, during the preliminary interrogation, led the prosecutors of the Salerno DDA to ask for an in-depth analysis of the topics addressed.

Ridosso said he was sure that it was Cipriano’s group who killed the fisherman mayor; a few months later, in December, it was the same entrepreneur who revealed to him that he had carried out the ambush, indicating as the perpetrator “‘o compañero tuo”, or Cioffi, the only person in the group, besides Cipriano, to have contact with Ridosso.

The motives for the murder of the fisherman mayor

Furthermore, Cipriano would have listed the reasons behind the murder to Ridosso. First of all, Vassallo would have had the intention of expelling him from Acciaroli, both for a theft in a premises owned by the mayor, committed by an employee of Cipriano. Another reason, the failure to authorize Raffaele Maurelli (Cipriano’s cousin, who was investigated and died during the investigations) to carry out work in the port of Acciaroli. The last reason would have been the one also identified by the investigators, namely to protect themselves from complaints from Vassallo relating to drug trafficking.